I am seeking software to assist in some relatively basic music composition. Background: I've written a play where, among the characters, I have a teenager who is an aspiring rock'n'roll star. The play is not a musical, but the teen performs snippets from a few songs. I've written lyrics, now I need music -- melody and chords. Because the character is a teenager, the songs don't actually have to be all that great (the kid is still developing his craft), just sort of plausible. What I want is the following: 1. Software where I can enter my lyrics, and then also use the computer keyboard to enter a melody (which I will make up) on a staff, and hear the notes as I enter them. (I don't have an electronic piano keyboard to plug into the PC, and I'm not planning to buy one for this.) I should then be able to play back the melody over the keyboard to hear it. Of course, I should be able to synchronize the display of melody and lyrics. 2. Here's where it gets trickier. I want to be able to indicate some kind of general "mood" and tone -- upbeat, silly, serious, sad, things along those lines -- and have the software suggest possible chords to accompany the melody. I then need to play back the chords and melody together over the PC, edit to make changes, etc. 3. Ideally, it would be nice to be able to specify a choice of instrument sound, such as guitar or piano. 4. Of course, the whole thing needs to be saveable as an audio file, like mpg or something along those lines. 5. The less expensive, the better. I don't want to spend $1000 dollars, and I'd prefer to keep it $100, or something like that. Software with a good, useable trial version for download would be ideal. Any leads, links to appropriate Web sites, etc., would be nice. I use Windows XP. Please reply on-list, or to Steveqdr [just as written] aa tt yyaahhoooo ddoott ccoomm
With the exception of the notation part, most of what you mentioned sounds very much like a new product I just heard about a few days ago, believe it or not from Microsoft. It's called Songsmith: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/ I think it costs about $30, and there is a trial version. I haven't tried it, but it looks like you sing your melody into the program using any mic (including the kind built into a notebook PC), then you also tell it things liket he kind of mood you're looking for and the musical style, then it comes up with chords for you to build an accompaniment. You can also tweak the chords it comes up with to tailor it, and they are using instruments from Garritan, who supply some pretty good quality stuff in their mainstream products. I'm pretty sure the product doesn't do notation, though. You could try a low end version of a mainstream DAW program or notation program for that (e.g. Cakewalk Music Creator is about $35 or $40 -- see http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/MusicCreator/ for an overview of features), but I doubt any of those will suggest chords for you. Band-in-a-Box, which was also mentioned in a response to this message, is a good way to experiment with styles and chord changes, but I don't think it'll suggest chords for you, either, and I don't recall what it offers on the notation side (my version of BiaB is quite a number of versions old now, too). Definitely worth checking out, though, as it's possible the newer versions may do more of what you're asking for here. Rick -- ======================================= Rick Paul Closet Cowboy Music (ASCAP) Web: www.RickPaul.info MySpace: www.myspace.com/rickpaulmusic ======================================= "NoName" <> wrote in message news:... >I am seeking software to assist in some relatively basic music > composition. > > Background: I've written a play where, among the characters, I have a > teenager who is an aspiring rock'n'roll star. The play is not a > musical, but the teen performs snippets from a few songs. I've > written lyrics, now I need music -- melody and chords. Because the > character is a teenager, the songs don't actually have to be all that > great (the kid is still developing his craft), just sort of plausible. > What I want is the following: > > 1. Software where I can enter my lyrics, and then also use the > computer keyboard to enter a melody (which I will make up) on a staff, > and hear the notes as I enter them. (I don't have an electronic piano > keyboard to plug into the PC, and I'm not planning to buy one for > this.) I should then be able to play back the melody over the > keyboard to hear it. Of course, I should be able to synchronize the > display of melody and lyrics. > > 2. Here's where it gets trickier. I want to be able to indicate some > kind of general "mood" and tone -- upbeat, silly, serious, sad, things > along those lines -- and have the software suggest possible chords to > accompany the melody. I then need to play back the chords and melody > together over the PC, edit to make changes, etc. > > 3. Ideally, it would be nice to be able to specify a choice of > instrument sound, such as guitar or piano. > > 4. Of course, the whole thing needs to be saveable as an audio file, > like mpg or something along those lines. > > 5. The less expensive, the better. I don't want to spend $1000 > dollars, and I'd prefer to keep it $100, or something like that. > Software with a good, useable trial version for download would be > ideal. > > Any leads, links to appropriate Web sites, etc., would be nice. I use > Windows XP. Please reply on-list, or to Steveqdr [just as written] aa > tt yyaahhoooo ddoott ccoomm > >
